The British court granted King Emeritus Juan Carlos legal immunity on Tuesday until his abdication in 2014, which the father of the current Spanish monarch claimed trying to mitigate a harassment lawsuit filed by her ex-lover in London.
(Also: The explosive podcast of her ex-lover that puts King Juan Carlos I in check)
Three London Court of Appeal judges ruled that the “alleged conduct prior to the abdication is immune from the jurisdiction of the courts of this country.”
(Also read: King Juan Carlos I of Spain: why do you claim immunity in case of harassment?)
The 84-year-old former monarch had argued since 2021 that he could not be tried in England under the British State Immunity Act of 1978.
However, a High Court judge had denied him in March arguing that he was no longer a member of the royal house and that even before his resignation, the “harassment acts” accused of by the German-Danish businesswoman Corinna zu Sayn -Wittgenstein Sayn, 57, with whom he had an extramarital relationship between 2004 and 2009, did not benefit from said protection.
(You may be interested in: Conrinna Larsen: from lover to enemy of King Juan Carlos I of Spain)
The Court of Appeal later agreed to re-examine the matter, but only while he was head of state.
Since the king emeritus was not authorized to claim inviolability after his abdication, the lawsuit for harassment, paralyzed by this appeal, could continue on a date to be determined.
However, his lawyers “also reserved the right to challenge jurisdiction on other grounds” relating to charges made after 2014, the judges acknowledged in their written decision.
(Also: The return of King Juan Carlos I to Spain divides that country)
“If Juan Carlos maintains these arguments, we hope that the High Court will reject them and require him to present his formal defense,” representatives of the businesswoman reacted, admitting their “disappointment” over this decision but emphasizing that “most of the demand for Corinna refers to the harassment allegedly occurred after the abdication.”
Contacted by AFP, Juan Carlos’s lawyers did not react.
Accusations of threats and harassment
Appointed head of state in 1975 after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos I was respected for decades for allowing the return of democracy to Spain.
But a series of scandals starting in 2012 brought down his image, leading him first to abdicate in favor of his son, Felipe VI, and in August 2020, to go into exile in the United Arab Emirates, where he has lived since then.
Denounced eight years of threats, intrusions, monitoring, hacking and defamation, the businesswoman – divorced from a German prince and also known by her maiden name Larsen – filed a civil lawsuit against him in 2020 for harassment in London, where she resides .
(Keep reading: Swiss Prosecutor closes corruption case against King Emeritus Juan Carlos)
She assures that Juan Carlos harassed her since 2012 seeking to recover “gifts” that include 65 million euros (68 million dollars).
He claims compensation for psychological damage and removal measures. There is no risk of imprisonment or extradition to the king emeritus, who denies the accusations. But the former king’s lawyer, Tim Otty, argued in November that the immunity “is a procedural hurdle, it has absolutely no regard to the legality or morality of the alleged conduct.”
Lover and figurehead?
Larsen’s lawyers defended that when requesting the services of General Félix Sanz Roldán, then director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) who, according to her, threatened her and sent agents to harass her, Juan Carlos did so as a personal favor among friends. and not as head of state resorting to the head of espionage.
(Immunity) is a procedural obstacle, it does not take into account at all the legality or morality of the conduct} alluded to.
To underline this “private” behavior, they recently corrected their claim, removing all reference to the Spanish secret services, which the Court of Appeal judges censured on Tuesday, considering that “any request for modification (…) must be supported by evidence on its merits”.
(It may interest you: The Spanish Treasury follows the accounts of King Emeritus Juan Carlos I)
In court documents filed in November, Larsen assured that although Juan Carlos gave her the 65 million claiming “an affection for her and her children that she could not reflect in her will,” his intention was actually to hide them from the Spanish tax authorities, using her as a figurehead.
And he affirms that the alleged harassment began in 2012, when seeking to access said money.
The cause in London was clouded by the recent publication of a controversial podcast titled “Corinna and the King”.
AFP
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